Linda Flick still indulges when she and her husband have company. Perhaps it's a sweet treat or a piece of red meat.

"Every once in a while, I'll fall off and go to Dairy Queen," she said.

However, since Flick's diagnosis of colon cancer in 2004, the 59-year-old living in Wichita, Kan., has stayed on the dietary straight-and-narrow. The cancer is in remission, but it fundamentally changed the way the Baby Boomer approaches eating.

"They felt like we caught (the cancer) early, and I had the surgery," she said of her doctors. "After that, for about a two-year period, I was really strict."

In particular, Flick avoided red meat, a dietary staple of hers that she recognizes as being potentially culpable for her disease. "I think some of that colon problem was from an insufficient diet," she said.

If Flick has any red meat now, she makes sure it's low in fat. But after her two years of dietary strictness passed, Flick latched onto a pearl of wisdom that, she believes, could apply to all people between the ages of 48 and 62: Eat less and eat better.

It's a dietary philosophy supported by Today's Dietitian, which bills itself as the magazine for nutrition professionals. In an article from March 2008, registered dietician Lynn Grieger wrote, "As early as the 1930s, McCay et al reported that caloric restriction prolongs the lifespan and promotes healthier aging."

Furthermore, Greiger's article recommends Baby Boomers avoid "calorie-rich and processed food-like products," or CRAP for short. "As you get older, you just can't process it as well," Flick said. "I can tell when I start drifting off a bit."

Changing As You Age

Flick's diet in 2008 is much different than it was in her 20s and 30s. Back then, fast food was a regular component of her weekly intake -- meals filled with sugars and starches. She acknowledges that vegetables probably weren't an integral part of that diet.

"I think every decade I got a little more disciplined with eating," she said.

It's a stark contrast to her years in Minnesota, where she was born and raised. Back then, most dishes seemed to be either fried or mashed, she said. Today, her focus is on being well-balanced with chicken and salmon for protein and at least five servings a day of fruits and vegetables for vitamins and nutrients.

"I usually try to eat five small meals per day," Flick said.

While the availability of healthful options at stores and in restaurants virtually overflows nowadays, Flick said, she recognizes that eating right can be cost-prohibitive.

"To eat right is an expense. I feel bad, because I know plenty of people who would like to eat right," she said.

Flick's grocery bags usually come stocked with apples, Romaine lettuce, broccoli, celery, spinach and perhaps a lime or lemon. She has a juicing machine and loves to turn fruits and veggies into liquid.

"I wash them good and throw them on in," Flick said, adding that at one point a few years ago, she had to slow down on the carrots because they were turning her skin orange.

"That Jack Lalanne really has the secret, I'm afraid," Flick said of juicing, referencing the famed health enthusiast.

Controlling Blood Pressure

Like Linda Flick, Oklahoma resident Vel Reggio eats more healthfully today than she did in her youth. However, there was no life-changing cancer diagnosis for the 60-year-old resident of Choctaw.

Instead, Reggio struggles with high blood pressure, a condition that afflicts millions of Americans. She has to watch her sodium intake, and she is supposed to get more exercise than she does.

"Which I don't do," she said. "I keep trying."

While Reggio's dietary habits are sounder these days, she stressed that she has always loved green vegetables, particularly asparagus and broccoli. In fact, she has passed on her love of broccoli to her grandchildren.

"They have to have the broccoli dish. They'll fight over the broccoli. They love the vegetables, but we started them when they were very little," Reggio said.

When Reggio was growing up, there weren't nearly the number of fast-food options, she said. Nevertheless, she still counts cheese - a fast-food staple -- as one of her primary, life-long dietary weaknesses.

"I used to eat anything and everything I wanted," she said.

In terms of meat-eating, Reggio said she has always eaten chicken. While she tries to stay away from red meat, she can't make any promises.

"I wish I could, but I love meat loaf," she said.

Reggio said she's always been a big believer in eating yogurt for its good bacteria, and she tries to avoid sweets.

"Sugar should be a big no-no," she said.

But what should Baby Boomers eat? In Greiger's article for Today's Dietitian, she wrote that nutritionists recommend Baby Boomers eat omega-3 fatty acids such as those found in fish; antioxidants from fruits, vegetables and grains; and plant-based proteins from whole grains, nuts and legumes.